Thursday, December 20, 2007

El agua está .... ¡refrescante!

He aquí unos amiguitos (Miguel, Vicente y Tomás), los hijos de una amiga, que han decidido echar una bañadita en la chorrera Nadal. ¡Uy! ¡Qué frío! La chorrera está ubicada no lejos de Hervás, un pueblo extremeño. He estado allí, pero claro, en el verano, y es una gozada. Además, me gusta charlar con Delia durante la caminata.





Here are a few friends (Miguel, Vicente and Tomás, the sons of a friend), who have decided to take a dip at the Nadal falls. It's cold! The falls are located not far from the town of Hervás, in Extremadura (Spain). I've been there, but in the summer, and it's great. Plus, I like to chat with Delia during the long walk to get there.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Have Yourself a Dandy Little Christmas

Kids, you're bothering me.


Thanks to Dr. Zaius for the image.

Did you know Santa is a smoker?

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

College meme


Dr. Zaius tagged me for the "college meme." I confess, these are not classes that I would want to take.

469. English - Introduction to Sade. (3 credits) MWF 4:00-4:50
Dear student, you may find this class, how shall we put it? uncomfortable, but you may find also that it is not without certain pleasures for those of you with the requisite perversity and disdain for preconceived norms. Students are expected to stay in their seats and to refrain from whimpering.

101. Communication - Communicative Practice. (3 credits) MWF 8:00-8:50)
The objective of this course is communication. Communication occurs when a sender is able to express a message (communicative content) to a recipient via one of several media. The goal of communication is to communicate, therefore we examine in this class effective communicative strategies which facilitate the communicative process.

157. Internship - Feeding the Instructor's Ego (3 credits) MWF 10:30-11:45
(Formerly: Brown Nosing 2104.)
Learn why the teacher's dissertation and unimaginative stories about his dreary life are more important than furthering your college education. Roundtable discussions will focus on the professor and his relationships on and off campus. The instructor will encourage certain students to call him by his first name, but not others. Female students will be encouraged to wear skimpy, tight-fitting clothing and sit in the front row for extra attention by the teacher. You will be required to buy an expensive text that will not be used during the semester. (Prerequisite: Ass Kissing 101)

999. English - Literary Theory. (3 credits) MWF 3:00-3:50
What is literature? What is theory? These are questions we address in this ontological entity which we agree will be referred to with the arbitrary nominalization, "class," which will, despite the inevitable espistimological slippage, abide by certain norms established by the phalocentric and hegemonic academic establishment. The discursive practice of this enterprise, while not precluding a questioning of alternity and the sub-altern, vis-a-vis the patricarchal system of higher education, will question the canonic viablity, in the Derridian and/or Foucaultian, post-modern emergence of an imagined "reality." As students/scholars in a post-literary world, we shall contrast a post-feminist critique a la Butler with the Kantian notion of conceptual continuity. We will negotiate in/through an Adornian discursive praxis, while maintaining a consciousness of literature as a mere reflection of the historical moment in the Marxist sense.

102. Physical Education – Frisbee Golf (2 credits) TR 3:00-4:15
Dude, this class totally rocks! Fulfil your Phys. Ed. req. while flippin' a disk in the sunshine!! This class is totally awesome! I kid you not! Although there are moments when it's like, random (like, you know, tests on the rules and stuff) for the most part we'll be kickin' it out-doors! Later!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Jazz in the Living Room

Tyler and Sean
You can see my feet and my music, behind Tyler. I'm playing alto, reading the chart for Cherokee. Pavel took the first chorus and played the line from C- Jam blues over the changes. Then the three of us came in on the head. It sounded great.

Wells
He held the bottom down all evening, keeping the rhythm. Who needs a drummer? Wells is an old-school bass player. He called "I let a song out of my heart." It turned out well.

Pavel
Sometimes his hands move so fast over the keyboard that it's just a blur. A modernist, but he knows the old-school stuff too.

Tyler's hands
After Wells and Pavel left, we played a few more tunes. "In a Sentimental mood" as a trio, alto sax, tenor sax, and trumpet. Then Sean and Tyler dueted on Mingus's "A self-portrait in three colors," and then I comped chords on the piano to "Do nothing till you hear from me" while Tyler blew. A good night of jazz.

Happy Birthday, Lauren.